''Bad Street, U.S.A.'' is blaring over the...

Robert WolfCHICAGO TRIBUNE

''Bad Street, U.S.A.'' is blaring over the speakers and the Rosemont Horison crowd is on its feet, straining for a look at the man in the floor-length red, white and blue sequined cape walking up one of the aisles. His female admirers are clapping and screaming as he climbs into the ring, jerks his head up, brushes back his locks and begins strutting in slow steps around the mat.

Yes, this is Michael Hayes from Bad Street, U.S.A., and now he`s raising his arms above his head and shouting, ''Am I beautiful or what?''

The music on the speakers changes. Hayes is standing on the ropes in the glare of spotlights, looking into the crowd, head held high, his long golden hair curling over his shoulders. The crowd is still applauding him, but its enthusiasm is dimmed. Its attention now is focusing on Rick Martel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA) heavyweight champ making his way quickly up the aisle.

Hayes seems confused, jerking his head around, walking back and forth across the ring, frowning and wondering what`s happening. Poor Hayes doesn`t understand the reason until Martel gets in the ring.

Something is wrong. Martel pays no attention to his screaming fans or to the preening Hayes, who is trying to regain the crowd`s attention. No, Martel takes off his championship belt, throws it on the mat and attacks Hayes FROM BEHIND! Martel is clearly upset! For a good guy like Martel to attack Hayes from behind without warning, without waiting for the referee to begin the match, means that Hayes must have done something really bad.

The crowd is roaring. This is the last match of the evening and the excitement has built steadily for the last 2 1/2 hours to this frenzied pitch. The fans have seen one of their heroes left unconscious on the mat. They have seen the rules broken by good and bad guys, heads smashed into turnbuckles, bodies hurled out of the ring, and now--horror of horrors!--baby face Martel`s sudden attack is being repulsed by Hayes.

Hayes is body slamming Martel again and again onto the mat. Martel just lies there and Hayes jumps onto the top ropes in a corner and poses, his head held high, his hands on his hips. Then he begins strutting around the stage in those small, prancing steps of his, hands out, palms up, as if to say, ''Look at how beautiful I am.'' A small, good-looking woman in a second-row seat is standing up, her face a mask of hatred, waving a rolled-up newspaper and shouting obscenities at Hayes.

''These,'' a security guard explains, referring to the crowd, ''are the diehards. They really believe it.'' The summertime crowd is relatively small, a mere one or two thousand, but they love what they`re seeing--the world of professional wrestling.

The action moves fast and Hayes wins only because two of his nefarious pals rush into the ring and help him smear Martel over the mat. The trio of heels exits, leaving the wounded Martel stumbling about. The crowd is protesting the illegal win and chanting, ''Bull----! Bull----! Bull----!'' A furious fan is screaming about the injustice: ''I don`t like three men on one guy! They gave it (the match) to those guys! This isn`t the first time they`ve done that!''

Long-time wrestling promoter Bob Luce says there`s a serious danger posed by the fans. ''You have a situation where you have these people drinking and getting themselves all hyper as the events move along and the pace quickens;

you`re in a situation where you just hope that nothing happens. You`re praying that nothing happens. I remember Heenan`s going back from the ring and a fellow was on a chair waiting for him . . .and as Heenan went by he leaped

--`cause we had a cordon of police around him, Andy Frain--where the people couldn`t get to him if he were the heel, the bad guy. Heenan had a lot of heat on him so he`s coming down to the dressing room and this guy leaped in the air with a ballpeen hammer. And it was the only way he could hit him was to jump in the air as he came by and then come down like this and he hit him right square in the head.''

Who wouldn`t fear these attacks? Luce relates a conversation he had with Nick Bockwinkel, a long-time AWA heel. ''Bockwinkel would say to me, in all seriousness, I think, looking back, `You know, Luce, if I get hurt seriously, going to the ring or back`--the way he put it, he talks like he talks on TV

--`Luuuuuuce, if I get hurt . . .going to the ring or back . . .I will have your house burned down.` That`s how he talks. I say, `Come on, Dick.` He says, `No! You can rest assured that your house will be burned to a cinder, Luce.` ''

Well, Bockwinkel has cause to worry, and not just about physical injury from fans. All wrestlers, especially the heels, suffer in the normal course of events. Heels suffer more than baby faces because they take more bumps, are thrown off their feet more. What results over the course of years are hip displacements and back injuries.

Heels also have to live with daily abuse from fans. ''Some,'' says Luce,

''can`t handle it and they have a mental problem and can`t carry on.'' Good guys and bad guys alike often can`t take the constant action, wrestling between five and seven nights a week. Adding it all up, it isn`t such an easy life. The best advice: If you want to act, stick to the kind of drama that has dialogue.

WHERE TO SEE THE ACTION

Rosemont Horizon, Northwest Tollway and Mannheim Road--American Wrestling Association (AWA) presents a grappling extravaganza each month. The next is Aug. 18, followed with another on Sept. 28. For more information, call 635-6600.

UIC Pavilion, Harrison Street and Racine Avenue--The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) also holds a wrestling exhibition each month, but the dates are not announced until the week of the match. For more information, call 996-0460.

TV--WWF wrestling is shown each Saturday at 10:30 a.m. on WFLD-TV

(Channel 32). AWA wrestling is presented every Sunday at 11 a.m. on WCIU-TV

(Channel 26), followed by local wrestling at noon; the station also presents wrestling at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesdays. WBBS-TV (Channel 60) presents wrestling at 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. In addition, wrestling is shown at various times on several cable stations; beginning Aug. 27, ESPN will present 90 minutes of wrestling each Tuesday at 7 p.m.

THE BABY FACES

Sergeant Slaughter--Riding the crest of the Reagan patriotism, the popular Slaughter has defended America`s honor against such foreign adversaries as the Iron Shiek and Nikolai Volkoff. Slaughter steps into the ring equipped with Marine hat, camouflage T-shirt, army belt and swagger stick. When the Sarge is being stomped of throttled, his fans begin chanting, ''U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!'' This thunderous support usually revives the Sarge by reminding him of duty.

Hulk Hogan--The World Wrestling Federation`s heavyweight champ, Hogan is the biggest superstar in wrestling today. He has branched out into movies

(''Rocky III'') and TV (''Goldie and the Three Bears'') and is probably the advance guard for other wrestlers seeking entree into the pages of the National Enquirer and The Globe.

Rick Martel--Martel is the American Wrestling Association`s (AWA)

heavyweight champ. His name should really be Mr. Bland. Like many baby faces, Martel lacks a heel`s aura of vitality, but then virtue often seems so dull when compared with vice. Even his recent outbursts against Michael Hayes have done little to help his image.

Verne Gagne--Long-time wrestler and AWA owner, Gagne managed to hold his company`s heavyweight championship belt off and on for almost 20 years. Obviously a forgiving man, he has not fired those employees who have tried to cripple him and his son Greg, another AWA grappler.

THE HEELS

Iron Sheik--This Iranian stands for all that is evil in this world. His admiration for the Ayatollah knows no bounds--and he lets fans know it. His main passion is berating Americans, particularly patriotic wrestlers like Sergeant Slaughter. His tag team partner is--who else?--the Russian-born Nikolai Volkoff.

''King Kong'' Bundy--Bundy is not called ''King Kong'' for nothing. Weighing 450 pounds and standing 6 feet 5 inches tall, he is considerably larger than most wrestlers. Unlike his namesake, Bundy does not just fight in self-defense or for the sake of a fair maiden. Far from it. To judge by his laughter, Bundy enjoys his work for the pain and humiliation he brings his opponents. A bad egg.

Nick Bockwinkel--With his curled peroxide hair and disdainful airs, Bockwinkel is the picture of vanity itself. He seems unaware that there are rules to wrestling. Bockwinkel is so bad that he recently attacked his own boss, aging America Wrestling Association (AWA) owner Verne Gagne. Following a tag team match against Gagne, Bockwinkel administered a piledriver to his employer, bashing his head on a concrete floor and leaving him unconscious.

Michael Hayes--A boasting, arrogant man, Hayes is secretly a coward. He sometimes fights in triple tag team matches with Buddy Roberts and Terry Gordy, also bullies and cowards. The three call themselves the Fabulous Freebirds and claim Atlanta as home, but all speak with Yankee accents.

''Rowdy'' Roddy Piper--Sarcastic and brutal--even with women--Piper`s anti-feminist remarks have drawn fire from none other than Gloria Steinem. He and tag team partner Paul ''Mr. Wonderful'' Orndorff went so far as to attack Cyndi Lauper during a match but fortunately were thwarted by Mr. T.

The Road Warriors--These AWA National Tag Team champions--Animal and Hawk --have devastated almost every combination thrown against them. The duo recently went up against Sergeant Slaughter and Jerry Blackwell and were being counted out when last-minute interference by their manager resulted in their disqualification. They still kept their belts.

The airplane spin--Throw victim into ropes. As he rebounds, face sideways and stoop. When victim`s chest falls onto your back, quickly put one arm between his legs and the other around one of his arms. Victim is now lying across your shoulders. Stand and spin around until victim gets dizzy, then dump on mat.

The brain scrambler--Grasp victim`s head with both hands and smash repeatedly into turnbuckle.

The elbow smash--Make a fist and lift it to one shoulder. Pull elbow away from victim to increase power of blow. Drive elbow into victim`s face.

The forearm smash--Variant of elbow smash. Victim is struck with forearm instead of elbow.

The claw--Hold hand in rigid position with fingers splayed. Dig deep into victim`s stomach, arms or legs. A sure paralyzer. Can also be used to rake victim`s eyes and face.

The headlock--Obvious.

The kneedrop--A handy tactic when victim lies on mat. Jump up and come down with one knee falling on victim`s neck, face or arm.

THE RULES: NEVER BACK OFF

''. . . more honour`d in the breach than the observance''

1. A wrestler wins a match if he pins his opponent`s shoulders to the mat for a count of three.

2. A wrestler is disqualified for throwing another over the top rope.

(This does not apply to a battle royale, in which 12 to 15 grapplers participate in a free-for-all. The only way to eliminate someone in these melees is to hurl him over the top rope. The last man in the ring wins.)

3. Choking is not allowed.

4. Hitting with a fist is not allowed. Hand blows must be delivered with an open palm.

5. A wrestler who remains outside the ring for a count of 10 is disqualified.

6. A wrestler who is on the ropes for a count of five is disqualified.

HOW REAL IS IT? ABOUT AS REAL AS YOU SUSPECTED

Wrestling promoter Bob Luce complains about people coming up to him and asking, ''Ah, come on, Bob, you don`t expect me to believe that`s real, do you?'' But when you ask Luce how he answers those people, what you get is Luce telling you how tough certain wrestlers are and what great shape they`re in.

So just how real is wrestling? Well, watch it for a while, then ask yourself why certain formulas and patterns are repeated over and over.

Why do the matches on an evening`s card always build steadily in intensity? Why are the first matches slower and duller than the later ones?

Why is it that every pin before the final and decisive one always ends on a count of two? No one ever is held down for just one count! When a man`s head is being slammed onto the mat, why do his arms slap down first? When a wrestler drops his knee onto a fallen foe, why does his other knee hit the mat first? Can you guess why?

Both Luce and Becker characterize pro wrestling as sports/entertainment. Becker said, ''I think it`s a finely orchestrated combination of both. And we feel very strongly about this, (about) the athletic ability of our athletes.'' No one denies that many of these guys are fine athletes. Many are excellent gymnasts.

But ask yourself why newspapers don`t cover wrestling in their sports sections. Why is coverage assigned to entertainment writers? Do you begin to get the picture? Do we have to spell it out for you?